While the international trade in small ruminants and small ruminant products is small relative to the trade in bovine, swine and poultry products, it is still economically important. In addition to wool, it includes some unique products (such as goat and sheep milk cheeses, cashmere fibre and karakul pelts) and the sheep/goat meat trade plays a large part in sustaining livelihoods in several re...

The recent emergence of the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated (Cas) 9 system has attracted significant attention for its potential to improve traits of agricultural importance. However, most applications in livestock species to date have depended on aberrant DNA repair to generate frameshifting indels. Whether this genomic engineering technique ...

Large areas of South Africa are only suitable for animal production off natural veld, and it is in these ecosystems that the goat has the biggest potential. Developing this potential, however, will require a co-ordinated and multi-functional approach where subject matter specialists work together as a team. Past research and development initiatives in South Africa have concentrated largely on t...